The government's direct tax arrears, including income and corporate tax, stood at over Rs 2.1 lakh crore at the end of May this year, while about eight per cent of the total amount was collected so far.

"Out of the arrear demand of Rs 2,10,404 crore the net collectible demand is only Rs 18,200 crore," Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam informed Rajya Sabha today.

He shared that the rest could not be recovered for various reasons like courts and tribunals giving stay orders on tax demands of the I-T Department. The other reason is that tax is demanded from people notified for allegedly being involved in any offence relating to transactions in securities. In such cases, the amount cannot be directly collected from the person concerned.

Besides, in cases where tax demand is pending for corporates, the Minister said the tax cannot be collected as the company is under liquidation and in some cases the case is in front of the Settlement Commission for a decision.

However, the Minister added that the government is taking many other measures apart from statutory ones like attachment of bank accounts and properties.